8 ways to entertain kids on long trips
If we are going to travel as a family and it is a long journey, sometimes children can get bored, so we must bring several ideas designed so as not to get bored.
On trips we are all more nervous than usual, but when we have to travel with children, the journeys can be exasperating. Whether by bus, train, plane, boat and even the car , children are continually testing their parents’ patience . But do not panic, here are a series of games to help you entertain the children during the holidays.
Index
1. THE USE OF TABLETS AND SMARTPHONES
The first thing that comes to mind to entertain the little ones is the tablet. It is the easiest and most direct resource to keep you on the site for a long time. It is a very simple and helpful method because children quickly grasp what they have to do, and if not, they learn on their own through trial and error. The good news is that with a tablet you don’t need travel companions to entertain yourself because you play against the machine. The bad part is that it is not recommended that the little ones spend a lot of time in front of the screen . Eyesight gets tired and fatigued. In addition, if we only teach him to entertain himself in that way, both of you are going to have a very bad time when the battery runs out, the boredom will be even more intense than before.
Even so, to ensure an entertaining trip for them and calm for you, choose to buy a support for tablets and use it as a television. You can play in it the videos that you already have saved beforehand. It is not advisable to use streaming services in 3G or 4G because depending on the duration of the trip the joke can be very expensive, in addition, although in Spain there is good 3G coverage in some isolated places there are still problems. In conclusion, it is good to get out of trouble, but if it is a trip of several hours it is recommended to get a wide repertoire of movies and series in advance and reproduce them during the trip.
On the other hand, if you choose this resource, you should control the time children spend with the tablet or smartphone, trying not to exceed the recommended daily time for children.
2. WHAT ABOUT CONSOLES?
Another extremely useful alternative during the trip. With a console in hand you will make your child happy and you will be calm for a long time. Of course, headphones are mandatory (more than anything for your own mental health) , the type of video game they play does not really matter, some children are overexcited by action video games , but in reality this is very relative because there are children they also do it even with Tetris. In general it is a good option, the problem with using the consoles is that as it is something very, very entertaining, children will surely ask you not only during the journey, but also when you arrive at your destination. Therefore, as responsible parents that you are, you canAccidentally forgetting the charger at the bottom of your suitcase until the last day of your vacation, when you have to make the return journey.
3. PAPER GAMES
Here are included all kinds of games that can be done with a pen and paper: the hangman, the game of the boats (it helps us to review the coordinates), the tic-tac-toe … The only downside is that the driver will not be able to take part. They are very simple games that do not need anything special and are accessible to everything. You can make them more interesting if you bet things, it doesn’t have to be anything material, it can be “housework” or “15 more minutes of TV at night”.
4. RIDDLES
If you are not very fond of new technologies and you want to take advantage of the holidays to stimulate your child in another way, try the riddles. Memorize some that are fun and will kill you to think. While you are thinking you will not be repeating “is it long?” continually. You can also buy a book and ask him to tell you some (kids are excited to be resourceful to parents).
5. CHAINED WORDS
This game apart from entertaining, stimulates the learning of new vocabulary. If you want your child to review a little language during the holidays this is the ideal game. The first one begins by saying a word and the next one has to start a different one but that begins with the syllable the previous one ended with, for example “pencil-pinch-face …”
6. TELL OR MAKE UP STORIES
To tell stories you need to have at least a small repertoire to entertain children. If you can’t think of or remember any of them, you can always play invent them as you go . It is that from something you see in the window you begin to tell a story. For example, if you see sheep, you can tell a story where the main character is a mischievous sheep. Another variant is for one of the passengers to start a sentence and the next ones have to continue the story by adding another different sentence, so on. It is a fun way to stimulate the imagination . You just have to be careful not to kill the characters too quickly (which someone usually does when they get bored).
7. CARD GAMES
I don’t just refer to the classics as “Uno”. There is a wide variety of very fun and innovative games of this style on the market. Do you know the Dobble? It is a game of skill and mental speed in which children have to distinguish between a series of figures the correct one, more quickly than their opponent, although there are many mini-games that you can do.
8. ICONIC
Another very successful game, although more geared towards teenagers, is “Ikonikus” . In it the players have to put themselves in the shoes of others. They have to pick up a card and imagine what someone in the group would do in a certain situation, according to the symbol that appears on the raised card. For example, if leaving a cave, the player can ask “How would Carlos feel if he entered a cave alone at night?” The other players have to respond depending on the symbols that they have touched in the deal of cards. Laughter will be assured because you can get all kinds of drawings.
There are many cheap card games, which occupy very little and entertain a lot, and in my point of view, healthier than the tablet or consoles. Anyway, one thing does not take away from the other and you can always alternate both on long trips. Finally, we wish you good luck on your vacation and may patience be with you!
Dr. Tabriella Perivolaris, Sara's mother and fan of fashion, beauty, motherhood, among others, about the female universe. Since 2018 she has been working as a copywriter, always bringing to her articles a little of her experience and experience as a mother and woman.